Dance Like Never Before: The Wonderful World Of Petite Meller

True eccentricity is god-given. Laughing in the face of a testosterone-fuelled music industry, the pale, wiry Parisian songstress Petite Meller is a new force to be reckoned with.

Watching her perform is as surreal as experiencing a painting come to life before your eyes. She expresses vulnerabilities through her diverse art, using her small frame and high voice in parallel with a rich spirit and bold self confidence.

A lover of lingerie, jazz music and philosophy, her baroque style takes in a shock of white blonde hair, signature slick rouge pout and bright pink blusher. Discovering her in her bedroom one Wednesday afternoon, she’s under the duvet, holding off an impending philosophy thesis due at university and listening to a new song co-written with Starsmith.

A lover of travel, Meller’s room resembles a gift shop from some small tourist town. Swiss cowbells, an African shaker, Swedish folklore hats and Yankees caps adorn the walls. If her music decorated a room, it would appear similarly so: a montage of cultures and treasured keepsakes, celebrated with a sense of chaotic order.

Raised on an eclectic mix of jazz and blues records, Meller spent her childhood singing and performing for her parents. The first time she took to the stage was on a summer vacation in the south of France. She came second in the competition and won a milkshake.

Today, the childlike innocence of Petite Meller’s music is maturing as she does. “The things I absorb and learn in life are expressed and played out in an unconscious way throughout my songs,” she explains. “Every video of mine is like an acknowledgment on life.”

Reinterpreting her sound for audiences through dreamlike sequences, her fantastical music videos tell stories of sexual discovery and liberation, imagined from the female perspective. A poetic assemblage of sexuality and hidden meanings, Meller describes her aspirations for marrying visuals with sound as “bringing the unconscious libidinal dream into reality”.

Collaborations with new and established musical talents are scattered throughout her upcoming debut album, which she hopes will play out like a joyful pleasure born from pain. Recording the majority of material between London, Sweden and LA, Petite Meller took time to talk to Stereoboard about her passions and daydreams. 

When you walk to your wardrobe to get dressed, what moods dictate an outfit?

It's colours that I'm the most affected by. I love a green rain coat that my Grandma bought me in Denmark. I read that green is a colour which is responsible of the chakra's heart.

You are a free spirit with a distinctive voice, wonderfully individual style and confident energy. Who was instrumental in affirming your uniqueness and creativity?

I think my Grandma had a big part in constructing my imagination and spoiling  me. She was all about couture, pale colours, dresses, pantyhose and festive kerchiefs. She never wore pants.

You are a lover of philosophy. Which philosopher interests you the most and why?

It always moves between Freud, his interpreter Jacques Lacan and his antagonist Gilles Deleuze. Psychoanalysis and aesthetics are my study fields, but I love also Shakespeare, Kant, De Sade and more. Most of my songs were written during philosophy lessons. Lacan, Deleuze, Kant and Shakespeare's ideas are what I subconsciously write about. They build my fantasmatic self as a songwriter.

I love your Backpack video. What do you try to convey about yourself through the visual portrayal of the music?

Backpack is a song about a moment of enlightenment I experienced during a taxi ride. At that point, for the first time in my life I finally felt free from childhood insecurities which used to hold me back. Now they have become my biggest advantage as an artist. This free feeling reminded me of a scene from the French movie L’Enfer by Henri-Georges Clouzot​, when Romy Schneider is water skiing in slow-mo while water drops spray everywhere. I chose to wear a hand to represent the ability to overcome things.

I had the first idea for the video immediately after recording the song, then I collected all the references and worked with directors A.T. Mann and Napoleon Habeica to bring my fantasies to life in the most accurate way to what I imagined.

Which singer or songwriter moves you more than any other? And what specifically about that artist do you identify with so emotionally?

It changes between the jazzy melodies of Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, the chansons of Charles Aznavour, and the Gospelish writing of Holland-Dozier-Holland. That combination always crashes my heart to particles.

What strong woman empowers you?

My biggest role models come from Italian cinema like Anita Ekberg and Monica Vitti. Their personas are larger than life, they don't try to fit themselves into society. They can dance inside a fountain in the middle of the night or crawl on all fours in a conservative gathering just ’cause they want to feel funny. I think it's more a gender thing. Anyone who lives out their fantasies is all the stronger for it.

You have audiences all over the world: LA, Tokyo, Italy, the UK, Sweden, France. How has the popularity of your music translated internationally?

Japan, Mexico and the US were the first to discover my music but it's growing through the people I collaborate with, like my Japanese stylist, my Mexican director and American director, DP and hair stylist. Ultimately, this empire of creativity can spread to other territories and everyone would take a part of it. When we shot Baby Love it was a mixture of people from all over the world in a place they've never been before. I also love the reaction I get from UK, Canada, Australia, Poland and the Netherlands, so it's contagious.

You've written the new album with a whole range of producers.

Jocke Åhlund and Craigie Dodds produced most of the album. They're both phenomenal people who taught me a lot. The album was inspired by African music, we used a lot of bongos, marimba, flutes, voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo's choir mixed with sax and Detroit house keys. 

What will the album artwork look like?

It's by the talented David Bellemere. Wait and see.

What are your plans for 2015?

To shoot as many videos for each of my new songs and let everyone dance to it like never before.

Teach me how to say something very you in French before you go.

Je veux être la muse de ma muse...I'd like to be the muse of my muse.

Petite Meller Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Wed April 29 2015 - LONDON Birthdays

Click here to compare & buy Petite Meller Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

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